Kent opener Ben Compton admitted they let themselves down during the dismal defeat at Middlesex – but he insists they have the firepower to score big runs.

While a low first-innings score of 186 was perhaps understandable in testing conditions at Lord’s in their County Championship Division 1 clash, Kent then collapsed from 87-2 to 109-9 and 128 all out under blue skies in their second innings.

It meant Middlesex coasted to a nine-wicket victory inside three days and Kent’s opening-week success over Northamptonshire is already feeling like a distant memory.

After a free week Kent return to County Championship action with Hampshire the visitors to St Lawrence, starting from Thursday.

“I think we let ourselves down on [the] Saturday and we didn’t nail our skills often enough, to be honest,” said Compton, who emerged from the Kent dressing room at Lord’s following a lengthy post-match inquest.

“We’ve just tried to highlight what went wrong and be really clear on that.

“Today was probably the best day for batting. After a very tricky period of 40 minutes that we got through last night, we really hoped to make hay this morning.

“Me and Jack (Leaning) played quite nicely to see off that first hour but to be fair to Middlesex, they were the better team with ball and bat and they played very well.”

While Kent’s shortcomings in the bowling department are clear to see with a threadbare squad already being overstretched by early-season injuries, their middle order batting is yet to deliver.

The experienced Joe Denly has missed the last two games after scoring just 19 runs in his first four innings this summer and aside from openers Compton and Zak Crawley, only Joey Evison and Jack Leaning have scored a half-century.

Daniel Bell-Drummond has a total of 131 runs at an average of 18.71, Jordan Cox has 84 runs at an average of 14 while captain Sam Billings has just 61 runs in six innings at an average of 10.16.

They will all be under pressure for their places with Tawanda Muyeye posting three centuries in successive matches for the 2nds while Harry Finch is now a permanent member of staff having been drafted in for emergencies in recent seasons.

Cox and Bell-Drummond both scored more than 900 runs last summer and Compton is still backing his team-mates to deliver again.

“People have clicked at different times, but we still haven’t quite come together with a complete team performance, whether that be with bat or ball,” reflected Compton, who batted over seven hours in the middle at Middlesex, scoring 52 and 38 while wickets tumbled around him.

“Perhaps we did against Northants in our first game, but apart from that we’ve just had spells and we’re really trying to get everything to work in unison.

“We’ve got a very strong batting line-up and last year we had three or four guys close on 1,000 runs. I just try to do my best opening, which is a tough job in England and I really enjoy batting with Zak (Crawley).

“We work together quite well at the top because we have different styles and hit the ball in different places.”